VVF in its forward integration has moved further from its existing line of fatty acids and glycerine to fatty alcohols manufacturing. VVF has set up a new plant for the production of natural saturated fatty alcohols based on vegetable oils. The products are marketed under the registered trade name VEGAROL^®.

The VEGAROL^® fatty alcohols range consists of all natural C₁₂ to C₁₈ grades of fatty alcohols made from most pure fractionated fatty acids using the latest Wax Ester technology from Lurgi, Germany.

VVF's new VEGAROL^® fatty alcohols plant at Taloja is about 50 km from Mumbai in India. It is a part of an integrated Oleochemicals complex being built at the location. It is a 100% export oriented unit (EOU). The annual production capacity of this saturated fatty alcohols plant is 60,000 MT. It is a world-class, well laid out plant having one of the single largest fatty alcohols production capacities in Asia. The plant has been successfully commissioned in August 2004.

VEGAROL^® fatty alcohols are produced by using the latest Wax Ester Technology supplied by Lurgi Life Science GmbH, Germany. The VVF's Taloja plant is the first one to be commissioned in the world with this latest technology.

VEGAROL^® fatty alcohols are produced from natural vegetable oils-based fatty acids. In the first stage, fatty acids are esterified with equivalent grade fatty alcohols of the same chain lengths as that of the fatty acids, to produce wax esters. These wax esters are then hydrogenated under high pressure using special catalyst. The hydrogenated wax esters are then converted to fatty alcohols of specific carbon chain length and are subjected to fractional distillation to produce highly pure VEGAROL^® fatty alcohols. The fatty alcohols plant is equipped with a Carbonyl Converter to reduce the carbonyl (-CO-) content to the desired levels, if needed. The plant produces highly pure VEGAROL^® fatty alcohols with low carbonyl value. The whole production process is computer controlled, monitored by expert engineers from the most sophisticated central control room.

VEGAROL^® fatty alcohols are used directly or after conversion to other derivatives in a variety of products. The major applications of various grades of Vegarol fatty alcohols are listed below

General Information

In general, fatty alcohols are aliphatic hydrocarbons with a terminal hydroxyl group. The monohydric aliphatic alcohols of six or more carbon atoms are called as higher alcohols - those with 6 - 11 carbon atoms are called plasticizer alcohols and those with 12 to 18 carbon atoms are known as fatty or detergent alcohols.

General Chemical Formula : CH₃ - (CH₂)n - CH₂OH

Fatty alcohols can be "natural" or "synthetic" depending on the raw materials used for their production. When they are derived from natural vegetable oils such as coconut, palm, palm kernel, soybean, sunflower, and rapeseed oils or from animal sources such as tallow and lard, they are called as "natural" fatty alcohols. But when they are derived from petrochemicals like alpha olefins (ethylene) and n-paraffins, by Oxo or Ziegler process, they are known as "synthetic" fatty alcohols. The fatty alcohols obtained from natural fats and oils are always linear and possess even numbered carbon atom chains, while the synthetic fatty alcohols are not always linear and may have odd numbered carbon atom chains.

Fatty alcohols are versatile chemicals and find applications in a wide range of consumer, household, personal care, industrial and institutional products. For many applications, especially foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, natural fatty alcohols are preferred over the synthetic ones. In other uses, they are used interchangeably depending on the cost economics.

Fatty acids are long-chain carboxylic acids derived from various oils and fats by hydrolysis or oil / fat splitting. Glycerine is also generated in the process as a byproduct, but has to be distilled and refined further to obtain pure pharmaceutical grade glycerine. Fatty acids of different carbon chain length are produced by fractional distillation of fatty acid mixtures obtained by oil / fat splitting.

Applications

Fatty acids are mainly used for the production of toilet soaps. However, various pure fatty acids have a variety of applications in different products -

• Fatty Acids Specifications 1


• Fatty Acids Specifications 2


• Fatty Acids Specifications 3

Glycerine is a coproduct obtained during the production of fatty acids from oils and fats. Glycerine is a very valuable product having applications in various products of daily human requirements.

VVF is a leader in the national and global markets for refined glycerine conforming to various pharmacopoeia standards - IP, BP, USP and JP. All these grades are offered at very competitive prices in bulk shipments in ISO tanks as well as in 250 kg net packed in lacquer lined new MS drums.

Applications

• Glycerine Specifications